Reporting psychological investigations

Question 1

What is the 1st section of a psychological report?

Answer 1

Abstract
- A summary of the report
- Around 150 words that tell the reader the major elements of the report including the aim, hypotheses, method, results and conclusion.
- It allows researchers to read many abstracts instead of many reports

Question 2

What is the 2nd section of a psychological report?

Answer 2

Introduction
- A literature review and an overview of the current research field
- It is written using the funnel technique where broad themes are covered first and the themes narrow closer to the current piece of research
- It ends with the aim and hypotheses of the current research

Question 2

What is the 3rd section of a psychological report?

Answer 2

Method
- It should be detailed enough so that if someone else picks up the report, they could replicate the research
Must include:
- Design
- Sample and participants
- Apparatus and materials
- Procedure
- Ethics

Question 3

What must the design cover?

Answer 3

The experimental design should be stated such as the IV, DV and independent groups

Question 4

What must the sample and participants cover?

Answer 4

The sampling method, number of participants and general demography

Question 5

What must the apparatus and materials cover?

Answer 5

Any materials used such as word lists, images or computers.

Question 6

What must the procedure cover?

Answer 6

A full account of how the experiment took place including standardized instructions and everything said to the participants. Control for extraneous variables must be noted too.

Question 7

What must the ethics cover?

Answer 7

Possible ethical issues and explanations on how they were dealt with.

Question 8

What is the 4th section of a psychological report?

Answer 8

Results
- This section should include key results in relation to the hypotheses
- Descriptive statistics included such as tables, graphs, measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion.
- Inferential statistics include choice of statistic test, the calculated values and critical values.
- In qualitative research, the results will more likely include an analysis of themes and categories.

Question 9

What is the 5th section of a psychological report?

Answer 9

Discussion
- The results should be verbally summarised at the start of the discussion and should be related to the aim and hypotheses.
- The researcher compares the results to previous research outlined in the introduction.
- Any limitations of the research will be discussed.

Question 10

What is the 6th section of a psychological report?

Answer 10

References
- The purpose of this is to give credit to original authors of any work that has been referred to
- All references should be written in the American Psychological Association (APA) format
Author, initial(year of publication). Book title in italics. Place of publication: Publishers.